Today’s Question: When do you know your story is ready?
When my editor rips it out of my cold dead hands! Seriously, us creative types have a hard time stepping away from the shiny object *ooh, squirrel!*
But what happens when you don’t have an editor? Before I had any publishing contracts, how did I know my story was ready? . . . After I’d had three critique partners take a look at it, then fixed my manuscript according to their advice. I then shot for two beta readers to read over my novel and give me their feedback. It’s ideal if the betas are prolific readers in the genre you write, and I was fortunate to have that for my 18 Things YA trilogy.
I don’t like spending more than a year on a project, but I know other writers take as much as several years *coughs George R.R. Martin*
In the end, you have to go with your gut . . . or wait until your editor rips it out of your cold dead hands 🙂
This has been a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, the brainchild of Head Ninja, Alex J. Cavanaugh. Feel free to join us the first Wednesday of every month! Purpose: To share and encourage.
Jamie Ayres 
I’m one of those people who can take years on a book, especially because I haven’t written many. Glad you figured out your system.
I don’t spend more than a year.
I like having test readers who read my genre. Their feedback is just as important.
I enjoy having a few readers to read my book, but I have to admit I spend more than a year on a book. Maybe it is because this is my very first book.
Shalom aleichem,
Patricia
Readers help too. I have a couple of wonderful, devoted worth-their-weight in gold readers who will start giving me pushes and nudges to get a book out.
Noooo…not another Stark! Lol! I get depressed it it takes me over a year to write a first draft, which I’ve definitely done a time or two before.
I absolutely support readers as the best way to tell if a piece is finished. If they can’t read it or if they’re confused by it, it’s not finished. And if they seem like they’re dragging themselves through… it’s not even slightly finished.
Critique partners are necessary for me. They catch all my silly mistakes, both big ones and small ones. I’m also a slow writer, may take a year or two to finish a story, and then there are the revisions.
Love the caption on the pic … so true as well! 😀
I wish my editor would let me know when my ms is ready. LOL. Maybe not ripping, but something almost as drastic. Hi Jamie. Sorry I’m late. It’s been a crazy month.